2022's Uncharted failed to deliver as a film adaptation, with the report singling out Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Sully as its biggest misfires.
10 years of production churn helped shape that result: Wahlberg originally signed on in 2010 to play Drake, then stayed attached long enough to age into the mentor role instead.
David O. Russell's early version reportedly would have added Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci as Drake's father and uncle, underscoring how far the project drifted from the games before release.
The finished movie is described as a bland, poorly realized patchwork, with forgettable writing and watered-down recreations of the franchise's signature action sequences.
Nathan Fillion-led fan films are cited as proof that audiences still see a better screen version of Uncharted than the one Sony ultimately released.
If 'Uncharted' was a box office success, what does it mean to truly fail as an adaptation?
Have episodic series like 'The Last of Us' made the video game movie an obsolete concept?
Why do fan films often capture a game's soul better than Hollywood's multi-million dollar productions?